University community reports recent presentations, publications

10:42 a.m., Aug. 30, 2013--For the Record provides information about recent professional activities of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations, publications and media recognition include the following:

Campus Stories

From graduates, faculty

As it neared time for the processional to open the University of Delaware Commencement ceremonies, graduating students and faculty members shared their feelings about what the event means to them.

Doctoral hooding

It was a day of triumph, cheers and collective relief as more than 160 students from 21 nations participated in the University of Delaware's Doctoral Hooding Convocation held Friday morning on The Green.

• Doctoral hooding
• Old Swedes
• Summer SAT, ACT prep
• 'Opus 13' pre-sale

Presentations

Carol E. Henderson, chair of the Department of Black American Studies and professor of English, presented a paper on "The Power of A Single Story: Art, Action and Advocacy in Literature of the African Diaspora" during a plenary session on education, culture, gender and development at the ninth International Consortium for International Management, Policy and Development (CIMPAD) in Windhoek, Namibia, Africa, June 25. Henderson's essay will be published in the proceedings for the conference. The University of Namibia served as the host institution.

Publications

Prasad S. Dhurjati, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Colin A. Heberling and Myron Sasser are co-authors of a paper on autism that ranked among the top five downloaded articles in the Journal of Medical Hypothesis during the first half of 2013. The research was featured in a March 4 UDaily article.

Dawn Elliott, director of the biomedical engineering program, and her research team published a high-impact paper exploring how loads and strains are transferred through the meniscus, tendons and other soft tissues in the body to the cellular level. The paper, titled “Macro to Microscale Strain Transfer in Fibrous Tissues is Heterogeneous and Tissue-Specific,” was published in the August issue of Biophysical Journal, a well-respected biomedical research journal. Working in the BioImaging lab at UD’s Delaware Biotechnology Institute, the team measured how their samples changed shape under applied loads at multiple scales, simulating how loads encountered during daily activities are transferred through the tissue to the cell, and used fluorescent stains to illuminate and image the effect of the deformations on the tissue samples. The team ultimately discovered the way strains are transferred is highly variable and depends on multiple factors, such as tissue type, tissue microstructure and cell type. “Advances in treatment of musculoskeletal disorders will require understanding the effects of altered micro-scale strains on disease onset and on feedback for disease progression,” Elliott said. The paper was co-authored by Elliott and saw contributions by University of Pennsylvania students Woojin Han, Su Jin Heo, Tristan Driscoll, Lachlan Smith and Rob Mauck.

Media

William A. Sullivan, managing director of Marriott’s Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware, was featured in the September/October 2013 issue of Mid-Atlantic Events magazine.

To submit information to be included in For the Record, write to ud-ocm@udel.edu.